Margaret Pressley is the Founding Director and Starling Artistic Director of Violin Studies at the Seattle Conservatory of Music. She is well-known throughout the country as one of the foremost instructors of pedagogy for pre-college violinists. Pressley is an innovator of continuing education and a pioneer advocate in the Pacific Northwest of the importance of well-rounded musical training. After attending the University of Washington as a violin performance major, she chose to focus on a teaching career that has spanned 45 years. Pressley students are widely recognized in the area as concertmasters, award winners, and soloists. Present and former students have won nationally in competition, and are sought by collegiate music schools around the country, not only as students but also as graduate faculty assistants. Pressley studio alumni are now holding positions in orchestras and chamber music ensembles in the United States and Germany. Pressley has held faculty positions as Lecturer at Western Washington University and Adjunct Professor at Seattle Pacific University. At Seattle Conservatory of Music, she guided the highly popular Collegiate/Performance Preparation Program. During the summer, Pressley has been a Master Teacher at the Indiana University Summer String Academy, the Schlern International Festival of Music in Italy, and the Heifitz Institute in New Hampshire. She has served as a clinician in several states and has sat on regional and national advisory panels. She was String Chair for Washington State Music Teacher Association. She has been a featured author in American String Teacher national magazine writing on “My Journey Toward Teaching Succes" and was the recipient of the 1994 Washington State Outstanding Studio Teacher of the Year Award by American String Teacher Association. Clavier Magazine wrote an article in 2005 entitled "Margaret Pressley's Dream of a Seattle Conservatory of Music." As Founding Director (1994-2008) of Seattle Conservatory of Music, Pressley actively introduces quality music education to the Pacific Northwest’s most gifted young musicians for all instruments. Pressley is currently the Artistic Director of Seattle's Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation's Violin Program, to further the training of violinists who intend to pursue careers as professional musicians.